Obs.: For my Fancy lyes more to Character, then to Dialogue; and whoever will be so Kind as to Furnish me with Spitefull Materials, shall get his Own again with Interest, in an Essay upon Humane Nature.
(III, No. 246)
The Character was, of course, still highly popular in the latter half of the century, as Chester Noyes Greenough's listings show,[19] so that in indulging his own taste, L'Estrange was also catering to the tastes of his public. Of whatever other value the Observator may be to the modern student, it is invaluable as a fine example of the state-of-the-Character toward the end of the century. Practically every type of Character analyzed by Benjamin Boyce in his two studies can be found repeatedly in L'Estrange's dialogues:[20] the earlier imitations of Theophrastan Characters, with their parallelisms and antitheses; the Overburian Character, with its extravagant metaphors; the externally dramatized; the subjective; the sprung. There are Characters of ideologies, of political parties, of virtues, of vices, of Whigs and Dissenters (vices), of Tories and Anglicans (virtues). There are several "Credo-Characters" (confessions or manifestoes), and finally there is the habitually dramatized self-exposing Character which becomes indistinguishable from the dramatis persona, as is the Character of the Modern Whig in Nos. 13 and 110. Among the Observators included here, the definition of "Dissenter" in No. 1 is based on Character techniques, as is the conceit of the Protestant as "Adjective Noun-Substantive" in the same number. So is also the lengthy exposure of "Leaders" in III, No. 202, beginning with "They Talk, to the Ears, and to the Passions of their Hearers."
A final comment about L'Estrange's prose, which has been variously labeled "colloquial," "idiomatic," "vulgar," "coarse"—all vaguely descriptive terms suggesting value judgment, and none precise enough to give an intelligible account of what L'Estrange actually does. In addition to the obvious device of choppy syntax and deliberately careless constructions simulating extemporaneous speech, L'Estrange's figures and proverbial material demonstrate his meticulous shaping of an "applied prose"[21] particularly suitable for the audience whose opinions he tried to sway. His metaphors and analogies tend to rely on commonly known objects or experiences, and because of rhetorical necessity they are almost always unpleasantly graphic. A random sampling yielded the following results: about twenty-five percent of the figures in the Observator deal with some specific part of the human body (nails, spleen, mouth, eyes, ears, knees, heels, flesh, guts, belly) or physiological processes (ulcerating, itching, chewing, digesting, spitting, reeking, seeing, crouching, sweating, gobbling). There is no euphemistic delicacy in these figures; L'Estrange carefully selects the most earthy, common vehicles, thus achieving what James Sutherland has termed "racy" and "vigorous" prose.[22] Another twenty-four percent of the figures are based on common occupations, daily activities, or objects familiar to the simpler citizen of London. These figures ordinarily pivot on barter or trade (horse traders, hagglers, fishwives, car men); on activities such as cooking, gambling, or glass-making; and on such objects as clothing, bagpipes, paper-pellets, bonnets, and chamber-pots. The rest derive from the animal kingdom, the Scriptures, street-entertainment (jugglers, puppets, high-rope walkers) and folk medicine (glysters and plasters). It is obvious that these figures—their concreteness, sensuousness, and closeness to the daily experience of the ordinary reader—are a main ingredient in the richly colloquial texture of L'Estrange's prose, as is the proverbial material which he incorporates unsparingly.
In L'Estrange's language the law of the land cannot be misunderstood, for it calls a spade a spade (No. 106; T-S699).[23] The factions win their objectives by hook or crook (No. 100; T-H588) even though they are as mad as March Hares (No. 15; T-H148) and as Blind as Beetles (No. 15; T-B219). Certain things are as clear as the Day (No. 25; T-D56) or as plain as the nose o'my face (No. 40; T-N215), whereas others are so confused that one can make neither Head nor tayl on't (No. 35; T-H258). When noses are put out of joint (No. 38; T-N219) and Tories are given a bone to pick (No. 55; T-B522), there will obviously be no love lost betwixt Whigs and Tories (No. 97; T-L544).
Thus L'Estrange's Characters, together with the fanciful anecdotes, self-satire, parodies, and personae, provide the satire and humor in the Observator, the whole being couched in familiar, pungent language. As L'Estrange counters the faction, propagandizes, and exhorts to rational behavior, he also amuses and delights, always hoping that the laughter provoked by his satiric treatment will cure what he saw as follies of his age, always appealing to the common reader whose sense of humor, he believed, was probably more developed than his sense.
California State College,
Dominguez Hills